Match Report: St Albans City 3-4 Dulwich Hamlet.
By Callum Dell
Dulwich Hamlet survives a late comeback from St Albans as they go on to win 4-3 in a tight game at Clarence Park. This game puts Dulwich Hamlet 1 point above St Albans into Second in the table.
Dulwich were in cruise control and saw themselves 2-1 up at half time however a late comeback from St Albans brought the game back to 3-3. It was St Albans who were in control of the game and against the run of play Chike Kandi scored the winning goal for Dulwich Hamlet.
After nine minutes the first huge chance of the game came from St Albans and Shaun Jeffers. Corner comes in and Jeffers saw his shot straight at Grainger in the Dulwich net before it rebounded to Mitchell Weiss but was cleared off the line and it fell to Huw Dawson who’s shot was fired into the keepers arms. Dulwich Hamlet was let off the hook.
Something quite bizarre happened where Johnny Goddard and a Dulwich player contested for a header in the Dulwich penalty area. The ball was cleared for a corner however the Dulwich defender landed on the side of the net and ripped the net. This saw a stop in play for around five minutes whilst the players and groundskeeper tried to fix the net.
The first goal came in the 19th minute from Darren McQueen of Dulwich Hamlet. Great passage of play which saw him round the saints keeper, Michael Johnson and tap into an empty net. In the process Johnson injured himself and had to come off the pitch, with no spare goalkeeper on the bench defender Tom Bender had to go in goal with 70+ minutes to go.
Dulwich Hamlet dominated the play in the first half with St Albans giving away sloppy passes which is where the second goal of the game came from. In the 37th minute, a lack of communication saw Danny Mills receive the ball in the penalty area and slotted the ball past stand in keeper, Bender.
Just before half time a great ball from Weiss over to Goddard allowed him to go one on one with Grainger and slotted the ball past him to bring the score back to 2-1.
Straight after half time, Kandi made a great run breaking the offside trap by St Albans defenders with a great ball over the top by the Dulwich midfielder with a cracking touch to take the ball in his stride all he had to do was keep the ball on target and he scored. The game seemed dead and buried but the saints had nothing to lose and found a second wind after the third goal went in by Dulwich Hamlet.
Shaun Jeffers scored his 19th of the season with an easy tap in to make it 3-2 and to equal the score line another tap in Zane Banton scores the equaliser. It looked like the game was set at a draw until Kandi gets his second of the game and Dulwich’s 4th of the day.